Senior Honors Recital
Program Notes
In Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
ID 499
Jennifer J. Ping
January 29, 1989
L-i)
Program Notes
Johann Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach, Germany, in 1685 into a
musically gifted family. His own training included studying with his
older brother, Johann Christoph and Boehm, plus several years of being
a choir boy at Michaelis-Kirche, Luneburg. The vast majority of his
organ music was written during the period of his life when he resided at
Weimar, Germany. His secular and instrumental compositions were
written later at Coethen. During his lifetime he wrote every type of
music that was current except opera. He died in 1750 after spending the
last months of his life totally blind.
This set of six chorale preludes is typically titled the Schuebler chorales
after the publisher of the works. Five of the six chorales are transcriptions of church cantatas that Bach wrote previously at Leipzig, Germany.
The transcriptions were written at the urging of Schuebler to enhance
the profit potential of the music by enlarging the public exposure. The
chorale preludes were unique inventions in which a theme is played in
counterpoint to an obbligato melody of an independent character. The
Schuebler chorales have been described as "So beautiful, so new, rich in
invention, that they will never become out of date, but live through all
changes of fashion in music" (Williams, 247).
The Schuebler chorale preludes are based upon a set of chorales following the theological progression of the preparation for Advent, the salvation of the world, or the salvation of a particular individual.
'Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stirnme" ("Sleepers Wake! A Voice is Calling")
is termed the mighty keystone of J. S.Bach's organ chorale preludes. The
cantata was written for violins and violas on the obbligato line, tenors
on the chorale tune, and continuo on the elaborate figured bass. In the
organ transcription the obbligato is written for the right hand, the
chorale tune for the left hand and the figured bass for the pedals.
Devices that sacrifice the harmony to the melody such as thirdless
chords, leaping passing tones, literal echoes, and a crotchet bass line
create a texture and effect uncharacteristic of the organ or music originally written for the organ.
The fourth in the set of six is "Meine Seele Erhebt Den Herren" ("My
Soul Exalts the Lord"). The cantata was written for alto and tenor duet
against a Gregorian cantus firmus written for two oboes and trumpet.
The cantus firmus is from the "Magnificat" Bach wrote earlier which is
the only canticle to be kept intact in its original Gregorian form. The
principal motive symbolizes the process of humbly bowing, then rising
erect again. The bass fills the ritornello like prelude and postlude
around the motive with a five-measure passage.
The closing chorale is "Kommst Du Nun, Jesu, Von Himmel Herunter"
("Praise the Lord"). The cantata was written as an alto aria with an
obbligato violin and continuo. The organ transcription places the alto
part in the pedals and the continuo in the left hand manual part. This
requires unusual registrations to be used on the organ to place the parts
in the correct octave. The pedal line also becomes the only decorated
pedal line Bach ever wrote. Rhythmically the parts are in a binary
versus ternary conflict resolved only by allowing the ternary to dominate
the rhythm.
Jehan Ariste Alain was a composer and organist during his brief life. He
was born February 3, 1911 and was killed in action in World War II
June 20, 1940. He studied piano at Paris Conservatoire and organ with
Marcel Dupre. He was awarded the Prix des Amis de l'Orgue. Composition was his major endeavor in life, writing piano, organ, choral, and
chamber music. Alain's music demonstrated his individual style of
expressiveness, combined with dramatic intensity and rhythmic drive
exhibited by his decision to frequently change or eliminate time signatures in his works. His attitude towards his compositions was that music
should be a statement of the evolution of a soul's state. His deeply
rooted religious beliefs are expressed in his "Litanies" as depicted by his
own preface to the work. "When the Christian soul in its distress cannot
find words to implore God's mercy, it repeats ceaselessly and with a
vehement faith the same invocation. Reason has reached its limit. Faith
alone can go further."
Flor Peeters was born in Tielen, Belgium July 4, 1903. During his
lifetime he became a world renown organist,teacher and composer. He
studied and later became professor at Lemmens Institute at Mechelen.
He has received numerous honors including the Lemmens-Tinel Prize,
and honorary doctorates from the Catholic Universities of America and
the Catholic University of Louvain. He was made Commander of the
Order of St. Gregory the Great, and given the title of baron by King
Baudoin of Belgium. He has written pedagogical works including Ars
Organi and The Little Organ Book. His compositions exhibit his prolific
and accomplished style in piano, choral, and organ works. One of his
largest works is his Lied Symphony considered to be the last great organ
symphony. His works have been influenced by Cesar Franck, Marcel
Dupre, Charles Tournemire, Flemish Renaissance and polyphony and
Gregorian chant. His music shows his intense dedication to his country
and his family. His "Elegie" was written in memory of his mother on the
evening of her death. This work of great sorrow is held together by a
repeated syncopated pedal D continuing for three quarters of the piece.
The syncopated pattern can be equated to the heartbeat of his dying
mother. The intensifying dissonances compounded by a molto crescendo
heightens the dramatic impact of her death subsiding into a four measure
recapitulation of the opening bars. The closing quarter of the piece is a
statement of the plainsong 'In Paridisum' over a sustained pedal D. His
mother's anguish and pain are now finished and all that is left is peace
and reverence for the life that is now complete. The closing chord
creates the heightened effect of the eternal life obtained by his mother.
The "Prelude and Fugue in A minor" BWV 543 was written by Johann
Sebastian Bach at Weimar, Germany, between 1717 and 1723. This
work is one of the five large organ compositions Bach wrote when he
was approximately thirty five, during the height of his mastery. "Never
before had Bach put into a single line such suspense and intensity as he
puts into the first 23 measures of the prelude" (Williams, 109). The
tonic pedal point in the beginning gives rise to tension created by
carefully planned changing note values to the apex of the trilled chord.
The second portion of the prelude is episodic or rhapsodic through the
use of a systematic antiphonal figures. The conclusion of the prelude
builds to a height equal to that of the opening section.
The fugue is necessary in order to resolve the climax created at the
conclusion of the prelude. The subject of the fugue is related to the
prelude through the line formed by the highest tones of each four note
set of the prelude. It is also related to a fugue by Pachelbel and a
concerto by Corelli which Bach transcribed for clavier and later transformed first into his own fugue for clavier then for organ with adaptations for the pedals. The form of the fugue is:
measures 1-30
exposition of the 4 1/2 bar subject;
31-50
episode of new material with a head motif in
stretto;
51-61
hemiola cadence followed by subject entrance in
the dominant key;
62-95
subject entrance in the relative major key followed by episode in dominant key;
92-105 four part stretto followed by a sequential episode
through the circle of fifths;
135-151 pedal point into a pedal solo followed by a
quasi-cadenza section resembling the prelude
(Collins, 130).
Charles-Marie Widor was born in Lyons, France, February 21, 1844, and
died in Paris, March 12, 1937, at the age of 93. He was an organist,
teacher, and composer during his life. He studied with his father, Fetis,
and Lernrnens. Widor succeeded Cesar Franck as professor of organ at
the Paris Conservatory and later also taught composition there. His
pupils included Toumemire, Vieme, Schweitzer, Dupre, Honegger, and
Milhaud among others. In 1910 he was elected to the Academie de
Beaux-Arts. Widor was influenced by the Bach Revival in Germany and
England. In collaboration with Albert Schweitzer, he edited a complete
edition of Bach's organ works. He also wrote a supplement to Berlioz'
Trait del'lnstrumentation. His compositions include ballets, orchestra
symphonies, chamber works, opera, and ten organ symphonies. These
organ symphonies were written to suggest the nuances of the orchestra
while still depicting the essential nature of the organ. The Symphony
number 5 is the crowning achievement of Widor's organ works. The
final Toccata is a showpiece and much more. The pedal motives are
developments of ideas found in the first and third movements of the
symphony. This work exhibits changing texture,dynamics, driving
rhythm, and numerous modulations to create a decorative and powerful
composition.
Works Cited
Williams, Peter. The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, Vol. I, Cambridge
University Press, New York, 1980, pp. 109-130.
Williams, Peter. The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, Vol. II, Cambridge
University Press, New York, 1980, p. 247.